Displaying items by tag: arts

Parents and teachers have a lasting impact on the development of creativity. Results of this narrative and art-based inquiry support the theory that positive and adverse interactions with parents and teachers create rippling effects that extend well into adulthood.

I am a contemporary artist who loves to play around and mingle with colour. This is what describes me these days. Painting for me is a way to express my deepest feelings and emotions which otherwise I find difficult to communicate. Life amazes me. Questions about our existence, our purpose in life and life beyond death often perplex me. Who are we humans? Why are we all so different? Why are we treated differently based on man-made falsities? These are some of the questions I seek answers to.

My name is Michelle Evans. I was born and raised in the Hunter Valley, NSW Australia and work in the area of Indigenous arts, management and leadership. I got really interested in the phenomenon of leadership when I was teaching Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists and arts managers about management in the late 2000's. What I noticed was that when the cohort I was teaching came together as a group, something was happening beyond the learning about management. There were critical conversations about our practice in the Indigenous arts, critical deconstructions about the limiting state-owned funding and exhibiting/performing structures the Indigenous arts sector was working within. The word leadership kept on coming up for the group, and for me, as we worked together.

Leadership is inherently about change. It's a way of working with people; collectively moving towards a shared vision of the future. It's about setting an agenda at a local, state, national or even international level, with like-minded people whereby we collectively imagine how we want the future to look and figure out what's getting in the way of that and what we need to do to make this vision of the future a reality. Sometimes when people hear the word leadership they think of being the boss, or managing groups, being very directive. And, although these ways of leading may suit certain organisations, they do not define the work of leadership.

Here at the Creativity Centre we have just completed a project with artists in our local area. Funded mainly by a grant from Arts Council England, the aim of this project was to discover how our ejournal is made relevant to an artist’s practice and creative development - but it became much more than this. This project was highly successful, really useful and meaningful for the artists and art students who took part and a moving and rewarding experience for us. We received excellent feedback and everyone wanted to contribute to the journal. They identified key development needs and made valuable suggestions for future content to meet their needs and those of other artists. More importantly participants found this project so relevant, enjoyable and useful that they want to continue meeting monthly. They’re so enthused by this project that they want to learn more about Creativity for Artists, contribute more, continue developing their own creativity as artists and sharing their expertise with others.